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Angels fire pitching coach Mike Maddux, 2 others

· Jeff Fletcher · 2026-08-11 · nguồn gốc

Tim Leveque has been named interim pitching coach and Michael Wuertz has been named interim bullpen coach. Leveque was the pitching coach at Double-A Rocket City and Wuertz was the minor league assistant pitching coordinator. Although interim general manager John Mozeliak had said in June that he didn’t plan on making any coaching changes before the end of the season, he said on Tuesday that meetings with Manager Kurt Suzuki and players convinced him that a change was necessary now. He said specifically that Maddux and his staff were not using the available technology sufficiently. “Just over the time of of talking with with different staff members, different players, and there’s just this undercurrent of trying to get ourselves to be using all the different tools that you see a lot of pitchers use today,” Mozeliak said. “Obviously the word tech will probably be said a few times. Just really try to leverage that in how we help players grow. I think there was becoming some level of frustration with the inconsistency of that.” For example, the Trackman, which is ubiquitous in spring training bullpen sessions, was not used regularly during regular-season bullpen sessions. Left-hander Reid Detmers said he had to ask to start using it during his bullpens after the All-Star break. “If we have it, might as well use it, right?” Detmers said. “Not saying we didn’t use it all the time, but there’s definitely times where we could’ve used it.” Detmers also said the Angels have access to biomechanics data that wasn’t being used all the time. Mozeliak said he believes the Angels already have all the required technology, so it’s not a case of needing further investment to get up to speed. “I believe we have everything we need, just based on sort of my overview of what I’ve seen and the questions I’ve asked have been answered,” Mozeliak said. “That’s certainly not to say that’s a 100% answer, right? But I do feel like we have a lot of great resources that we can be taking advantage of.” Mozeliak added that he believes the coaches on the hitting side are using all the tools they should. The Angels (45-74) have the worst record in MLB, including losses in 25 of their past 34 games. The pitching, defense and hitting have all been to blame. Maddux is a veteran of 24 years as a major-league pitching coach, and he’s widely regarded as one of the best in the industry, but the Angels rank 24th in the majors with a 4.51 ERA. They have issued the most walks in the majors. Maddux did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Leveque came to the Angels just before this season after working for 20 years in the St. Louis Cardinals’ organization, most of them under Mozeliak. He finished his Cardinals’ tenure as a pitching analyst in the scouting department, after working for nine years as a senior minor league pitching coordinator. “I think he’s a really smart guy, I think he understands where the game’s at,” Mozeliak said. “I think he’ll be a good resource for Zuk moving forward.” Wuertz has spent the last 11 years working in various capacities in the Angels’ farm system, including five years as the Double-A pitching coach. He pitched in the majors for parts of eight seasons. Mozeliak said he did not anticipate any further changes among the coaches or manager before the end of the season, but he will continue evaluating everyone. “We have 48 days left in this season,” Mozeliak said. “We’re going to play 43 games. I view this as an opportunity. I see this as a chance for us to make a difference. Expectations to implement our processes and using all our tools will be mandated. Accountability, we’ll hold all of ourselves to being accountable for our actions. Embracing change, we understand things must be done differently and we all agree the time is now. We all recognize this has been a challenging year, but we also see this as an opportunity that we cannot waste.” NOTES The Angels still have not decided what the next step is for left-hander Yusei Kikuchi, who has pitched twice at Triple-A and once at Class-A in his rehab assignment. Kikuchi (shoulder inflammation) has said he feels good, but he’s given up 10 runs in five innings in his two Triple-A games. … Suzuki said the Angels are discussing ways to spark their stagnant offense. The Angels have hit .215 with a .608 OPS in their previous 24 games, going 7-17. They have averaged 2.5 runs in those games. Suzuki said they talked about things like being more aggressive on the bases. “At the end of the day, you’ve got to do what the situation dictates,” Suzuki said. “You don’t want to force anything either and run yourself out of an inning, too. You got to try to find a fine balance, but yes the discussions have been talked about, for sure.” UP NEXT Rangers (RHP Cal Quantrill, 4-4, 3.56 ERA) at Angels (RHP George Klassen, 0-1, 7.27 ERA), Wednesday, 7:10 p.m., ESPN, 830 AM